Brief Encounters
by Theeubernoob
Summary: Jaune is in a slump, he just can't get over his break up. Will a collision with a stranger help him? AU
1. Chapter 1

It was a pleasant Friday afternoon, nearly evening, and Jaune Arc sat forlornly on the couch, staring at his phone. He sighed deeply.

"Jaune?" A voice pulled him from his stupor. "Are you looking at her profile again?"

The blonde solemnly nodded as his roommate entered.

"Pyrrha's moved on, you should really stop torturing yourself like that."

"I know, but we said we'd be together forever, like you and Nora. How do you two do it Ren?"

Ren sat down beside Jaune on the couch. "People grow apart, it's just life. This really isn't healthy Jaune. She broke up with you two months ago, and you've barely left the house since."

"I know, but I just can't get over her."

"Looking at pictures of her and her new boyfriend likely won't help you."

Jaune whimpered a little.

"You need to get back out there, go outside, shower more than twice a week. You have to conquer this slump."

"You're my friend, aren't you supposed to support me?"

"Tough love. Plus Nora said, and these are her words, not mine, she'd 'break your legs if you cock block her any more.'"

"Wait what?"

"The walls aren't too thick, you're almost always here, Nora's a little pent up, so please, for all our sakes, go out tonight."

"Alright, I'll go get cleaned up, but you owe me for this."

* * *

_Jaune_ found himself wandering the streets with no real destination in mind. A part of him felt hurt that his friends would do this to him, but another part of him understood. Nora was loud enough normally, she likely- No. Jaune definitely didn't want to go there. To try and think about something else he started to look around. He remembered this street, there was a restaurant up ahead where he'd had his first date with Pyrrha... No, he didn't want to go there either. The whole point of going out tonight was to get his mind on something else, something that wasn't Pyrrha. Anything that wasn't Pyrrha. That sign wasn't Pyrrha, he could try thinking about that. That wouldn't work a sign wasn't nearly as captivating. That cafe wasn't Pyrrha, but he had coffee with her there only a week before they'd broken up, it wouldn't work either. The ground wasn't Pyrrha. Hang on, hadn't he been standing only a second ago? Why was he on the ground now?

"Ouch..." He heard from above him. That was strange, he was sure he felt something on his back, how did that happen. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" The weight on his back was suddenly gone and he felt someone helping him up. "Are you okay?"

Jaune didn't know how to respond, he was too distracted with the girl in front of him. She had short, unruly, black hair with red tips and her bright silver eyes were staring concernedly at him. Jaune couldn't help but stare back dazedly.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She shook him a little, jolting him back into awareness.

"Huh, what? Oh, I'm fine." He managed

She exhaled in relief before suddenly realizing something. "I'm late! I'msosorrygottagobye!" She blurted before taking off again, leaving Jaune standing alone on the sidewalk, confused.

* * *

_He_ eventually shook off the encounter and continued walking. He then saw a small fast food restaurant and remembered how he hadn't eaten dinner yet. The blonde decided to duck in.

He moved towards the line when he thought he heard someone say "That's the guy I knocked over," but he passed that off as his imagination.

Then he definitely heard someone call out. "Hey! Hey you!" Jaune, along with the rest of the customers, turned to see a blonde woman with long, flowing hair waving her arms and looking at him, and someone else trying to hide in a red hoodie. He awkwardly pointed to himself and she nodded, and beckoned him over. He awkwardly walked over, aware of all the looks he was getting from other customers.

He could hear a hushed voice talking to the blonde woman which he assumed came from the hooded figure, but couldn't hear what they were saying. Jaune reached the table and the blonde spoke.

"I believe you two may know each other." She pulled the hood of the other person, Jaune could tell that the talk he had heard had been pleading. As the hood came off Jaune saw that it was the girl who had knocked him over earlier. She didn't seem happy to have this much attention focused on her. She fixed her sister with a pointed stare. "What, I'm just trying to help."

The girl turned to face him. "I'm sorry about my sister."

"It's alright, I'm going to go get food now so... bye." He turned and got back into line, unsure of what had happened. By the time he had his food the pair had left. To be more precise, the dark haired girl had pulled her sister out with all the effort she could muster. Jaune once again found himself confused.

* * *

_Try_ as he might, Jaune couldn't get his strange encounters with the dark haired girl out of his mind. They were the strangest, and most interesting, things he'd been involved in the past two months, granted he hadn't done much this month, not counting crying, binge eating, watching more cartoons than he cared to admit, and leaving approximately fifty voice mails before Pyrrha got around to blocking his number. He had also worked, but that was so far removed from interesting he didn't even begin to consider it.

As he felt it was late enough, and that he had had his fill of happenings, he headed home. He sent a text warning his roommates of his return, mainly for his own safety. There were some things better left unseen.

Jaune made good time on his way home. The night's chill began to set in and he found himself taking a brisk pace. At one point he thought he saw the dark haired girl, but passed it off as his imagination. Running into a stranger three times in one night seemed a little far fetched. When he got home he was pleased to find both his roommates clothed and sitting in the living room.

"Hey guys." The blonde greeted his friends

"Hey Jaune, how was the night on the town?" Ren calmly returned the greeting.

"It was nice, there was this girl I met, well sort of."

"Sort of what?" Nora asked, perking up

"Pardon?"

"Sort of met, or sort of a girl?"

"Sort of met..." Half the time Jaune didn't know what went on in the redhead's mind, the other half he didn't want to know.

"Oh, that's boring."

"How exactly did you sort of meet someone?" Ren asked.

"She accidentally knocked me over, then I ran into her and her sister at the burger place by fifth."

"Ooh! Was she cute? What was her name? Did you get her number lady killer?" Nora asked a barrage of questions, earning sighs from Ren and Jaune. Both for the same reason. Jaune was a fairly oblivious man some times, he once managed to eat his lunch while missing a food fight going on in the rest of the cafeteria. The nickname lady killer stemmed from that, and was accidentally given to him by Pyrrha. He had been entirely oblivious to Pyrrha's advances, out of frustration she had called him lady killer to a mutual friend after he'd tried five times in five days to woo the school idol. Much to Jaune's displeasure, the name stuck.

"Yes, I don't know, no, and could you please not call me that?"

Nora, to her credit, was unaware that the nickname was a dig at Jaune, and was even less aware of the effects bringing up something associated with his ex girlfriend could have. Nora simply lacked any form of tact or social grace. Nora was a wrestler of some skill, because of this she was quite imposing. She had never experienced a malevolent nickname as people were simply too fond of functional legs to even try. All it took was putting one jerk of a jock through a locker to have everyone fear her. No punishment was ever raised against her for the locker incident as no one believed she could throw a two hundred-fifty pound man hard enough to crush a locker door. That was also how she met Jaune.

"You don't know her name?" Ren looked a little dumbstruck.

"Well they were really brief meetings." The blonde sheepishly admitted.

"She must have been really pretty then if you're so focused on her. So what're you gonna do?" Nora stared intently at him.

"I don't really know, I mean it's a big city, what are the odds of me bumping into her again?"

Nora frowned ominously. "Jaune."

"Yes?"

"Do you work tomorrow?"

"No, I don't work 'til Sunday."

"Good, then you're going to go out there tomorrow, and you're going to try. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am." There was no use arguing with Nora when she got like that.

* * *

_The _next day found Jaune wandering around down town as he had the night before, passing the burger place on fifth, the cafe of his last date, the pace he thought he saw the girl, and anywhere else that crossed his mind. After a couple hours he was out of ideas and hope. He was about to give up and head back home when he suddenly found himself flat on the ground.

"Ouch" He heard a familiar grown of pain above him. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" He picked himself up. "Are you okay? Hey, wait aren't you that guy I knocked over last night?"

"I'm fine, and yes, the name's Jaune." He held out his hand.

"I'm sorry for knocking you over again, and I'm Ruby." She took his outstretched and shook it. "Nice to meet you."

* * *

**Alright, so some of you may be saying to yourself, this isn't a new chapter of Two Much Red. That is because all my progress towards that is on my desktop, which due to circumstances beyond my control is disassembled, I only have my laptop, and so as I usually don't use it I don't have all my files. As I had already written a reasonable amount I don't really feel like starting again. I should have my desktop back up in about a week, until then I'm going to be writing this short story. It's obviously Rosy Arc, and planned to be about three or four chapters long. If I keep on top of writing it I'll be done it before the week is up. So I hope you all like this introductory chapter, I'll be more than glad to hear opinions on it, so kindly review. This is Theeubernoob, signing off, see you soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh crap I'm late! It was nice meeting you, and sorry for knocking you over again!" Ruby was off like a shot, running towards where ever she was going. Jaune thought four things that moment. He wondered how many people Ruby knocked over a day rushing like that. He figured it couldn't be too many, but expected it was still much higher than your average petite girl, how did someone so small managed to knock him over? Jaune was easily six feet tall and she was more than head and shoulders shorter than him, probably eight to ten inches, and looked much lighter than him. He also considered following her, but doubted he could keep up and didn't want to come off as creepy. Finally, he thought how beautiful she looked.

They had been properly introduced and Jaune had learned her name, surely that would be enough for Nora. He had wandered enough today and wanted to rest.

* * *

"_That's _it? You just learned her name?" Nora fixed Jaune with a pointed stare.

"What was I supposed to do?"

"Talked to her, asked her out, any number of things!"

"She kind of just ran off again, saying she was late."

"You'll have to try again tomorrow."

"Nora, I have to work tomorrow."

"Call in sick."

"I can't call in sick, I need all the shifts I can get. The rent went up a hundred dollar when..." Jaune trailed off, suddenly frowning.

"When Pyrrha move out." Ren finished for him.

"The rent went up?" Nora looked confused

"It's twelve hundred a month, with four people we only payed three hundred each, now there are three-"

"So we pay four hundred!" The redhead proudly exclaimed.

Ren nodded. "Right."

"So let's just rent out the other room."

"Other room..." Jaune trailed off as if trying to remember something. "This is a three bedroom apartment!"

He was met with blank stares

"You forgot... I'm not going to touch that. I'll start making some sort of add, the extra cash could be useful." Ren left.

"How did you forget we have three rooms?" Nora was genuinely curious.

"Well I kind of think of it with the last occupant, and I try to forget about him." Jaune did his hardest to forget him, Cardin Winchester.

It was two years ago that they moved to the city, Ren and Nora, Pyrrha and Jaune. Both couples tried getting one room apartments, and it worked for the first few months, they enjoyed the privacy, the having sex all they wanted, all of it. Until it all turned sour. Jaune and Pyrrha found out they were really renting from a slumlord, and were legally obligate to stay for a full year or pay a fine much greater than they ever recalled signing for. They decided they would definitely find a new place as soon as they could. But as much as they searched, they couldn't find anything reasonable with one bedroom.

Ren and Nora had a different problem. About six months into their bliss their neighbours on either side moved out, and the apartments were filled with someone who never seemed to turn of anything that could possibly make noise, and a couple who fought every single night. They decided to tough out their one year contract, the price was quite nice after all, After three months of patience they were rewarded with a neighbour moving out. Their neighbour above them, a quite older couple. They were replaced by a couple with triplets that were four months old and very, very loud. They began apartment shopping then, but ran into the same problem, all the good places with one bedroom were all already taken.

It was then that Nora and Ren talked about their search to Pyrrha and Jaune. The couples decided that they could get a two bedroom. It would be perfect, they had been best friends in high school they could easily get along, why hadn't they thought of this in the first place? They changed their direction to two bedrooms, but none of the places felt right, none of them could please everyone, someone always had a problem. Whether it was Nora not liking that weird smell, Jaune's new and entirely rational fear of mould, it being too hot for Ren, or too poorly placed for Pyrrha, none of the places could make the cut. Until one day, by sheer accident, Jaune searched for three bedroom apartments and found the one. The one that made the cut. It was perfectly situated, it didn't smell, it was clean, it wouldn't be too hot, and it was reasonably priced too. They toured it, checked it over, Jaune looking for any, even the smallest sign of mould, until they were all sure it was the place. They did all the paper work that day, and as soon as their contracts expired they were into the place. But something about the empty third bedroom nagged at them. They could each save sixty dollars if they rented it out and split the rent fairly with another person. The money could go to food, or date nights, or any number of things, so ads were made, interviews held and one person, Cardin, seemed the best choice. He could pay, he seemed polite enough, everyone thought they could put up with him. How wrong they would be proven.

Cardin ended up being a massive slob, unwilling to clean up his messes, his politeness was a facade, and he made his money by selling drugs after his parents cut him off. All of that was discovered over the course of six months. When Ren eventually found out about Cardin dealing out of their apartment he had Cardin evicted in handcuffs after tipping off the police and consenting to a search of the place. The room had to be fumigated for mould, and Jaune had never stepped foot in it since.

They hadn't looked for another roommate after that whole fiasco, as saving sixty dollars wasn't worth that much pain. It hadn't been a problem until Pyrrha moved out.

The rest of the day was spent making, printing, and putting up ads. They were surprised to receive a call about it that night. Jaune was the one to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hello, I'm calling about the vacancy you advertised." A firm, refined sounding voice answered, it was clearly a woman.

"Already? We just put it up like an hour ago."

"So I take it it's still available then?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"Good, if possible I would like to see the apartment tomorrow."

"That should be possible, there will probably be someone here all day."

"Good, I shall be there at exactly one o'clock PM. Goodbye."

"Uh, Bye?"

The woman hung up.

"What was that about?"

"Someone called about seeing the place, they said they'd be here at one."

"Oh alright, I'm working an evening shift so I'll be here."

"I figured someone would be, anyways I've got to hit the sack, night Ren."

"Night Jaune."

* * *

_True_ to her word the woman knocked on their door and precisely one. Ren answered the door. A woman stood there, wearing a considerable amount of white. She even had white hair done in an off centre ponytail.

"Hello, are you the one I spoke with on the phone?" She asked as she stepped inside.

"No, that was Jaune."

"I see, is it just two men living here then?"

At that moment Nora bounded out from the kitchen and noticed the girl in white. "Are you the one who's going to be our new roommate? Oh you're so pretty, it'll be nice to have another girl here!"

"Nora, please calm down. No, I'm Ren by the way, and this is Nora, the one you spoke with was Jaune, we all live here."

The girl nodded. "I see, I believe I need to clear the air, I already have a place I'm quite happy with."

"But?" Ren asked.

"So is my friend sleeping on my couch. She claims she's looking for a place, but seems quite content living with me. So I've taken matters into my own hands and started looking for her."

"I see."

"May I have a tour?"

"Of course, we'll start with the common areas."

* * *

"_I_ must say I'm impressed, and it's only three hundred?"

"Plus utilities."

"What's the catch?"

Nora shrugged. "No clue, we've been living here for a year and haven't figured it out why it's so cheap."

The white haired girl furrowed her brow. "I see, well, it's certainly promising. With any luck I'll call again in a day or two with whether or not my friend will tour."

"Alright, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

* * *

_Jaune_ arrived home later that night, Ren had already left, but Nora was still there, eating the remnants of the dinner Ren had cooked.

"No left overs again?"

Nora giggled. "Sorry Jaune, got hungry."

"It's fine, kind of expect it by now." Jaune didn't know how Nora did it, but she ate enough to feed three or four people. She never seemed to gain weight either, no matter how much of that was sweets. "So how'd it go with that lady that called."

"She was looking for a friend, said she'd call back in a day or two."

"Really?" Nora was notorious for forgetting messages, stories, jokes, speeches and all manner of other things and just winging it.

"Yep, Ren wrote it down for me."

"Oh alright."

_The_ woman ended up calling the next day, saying her friend would view the apartment, and asking if tomorrow at one pm would work, which it would, Nora would be on hand to give a tour. Ren would be at work, and Jaune would have to have left for work moments before they would arrive, but the day would work.

* * *

_Jaune _ had already left when he saw Ruby walking towards him and awkwardly waved. She noticed him and hurried over to him. "Hey Ruby."

"Hey Jaune."

"Not in a rush today?"

"Nope, made sure I had plenty of time today, anyways I've gotta go, I'm supposed to look at an apartment."

"Alright, See you later."

"See you later."

Jaune mentally punched himself. Here he was having a normal conversation with her, no rush, no starting it with _hey, are you okay?_ Just a normal conversation, the perfect opportunity to ask her out, and he missed it. He was so busy scolding himself that he forgot all about how someone was going to see his apartment that day.

* * *

_There_ was a knock on the door, Nora cheerfully skipped over and opened the door.

"Hi, I'm here about the apart-" Nora immediately seized the girl in a hug.

"Ohmygodyou'resocute!"

"Thanks?"

"Oh sorry" She let the person go and held out her hand. "I'm Nora."

"I'm Ruby."

* * *

**Hey guys and gals, I want to give you all a big thanks. First chapter got great support so I did my best to get this one out quickly, and I hope you all like it. Thank you to everyone who followed, favourited, or reviewed, you all rock. I expect it'll be four chapters total, so there should be two more coming your way in the next few days. See you soon. Theeubernoob, signing off.**


	3. Chapter 3

"She said her name was what?" Ren had arrived home, only to be practically mauled by an excited Nora.

"Ruby, and she was really cute, I think it was the girl that Jaune met."

"That seems really unlikely."

"Ruby isn't a really common name, I'm sure it's her."

"We can just ask Jaune when he gets back."

"No!" Nora seemed almost offended at the idea. "We can't tell him! If we tell him he'll stop looking for her!"

"But you said she seemed interested, shouldn't we tell him the girl he's been obsessing over might be moving in?" The black haired man could hardly follow his girlfriend's logic some days.

"But then he'd stop looking for her and spend all the time here again. He might shower more, but he'd still be here all the time."

"I see your point."

"Plus, it's not for sure yet, what if we tell her and she doesn't take the room and he's so devastated he runs away to join the circus and next time we hear from him he's living out of a train with 12 children?"

"Were you watching day time TV again?"

Their conversation was interrupted by Jaune entering.

"Hey." He absent mindedly greeted them. The blonde looked a little defeated.

"Is everything alright?" Ren concernedly asked his friend

"Hm? Yeah, it's fine."

"Doesn't seem that way."

Jaune sighed. "I saw Ruby twice to day, she wasn't even rushing, but couldn't ask her out."

"Why not?"

"I forgot the first time, and the second time she was with a friend and it would've been too awkward."

"When did you run into her?" Ren calmly asked. If he was right, and he had no reason to expect he wasn't, these encounters would be more than enough to figure out if there was only one Ruby.

"First on my way to work, probably like five minutes after I left. I can't remember what she said she was doing."

That matched up well, Jaune had to work at a quarter past one, to make it to work, he had to leave at ten to one, the Ruby who viewed their apartment was to show up at around one.

"Then I ran into her again on my way home. She was walking with a girl with really long white hair. Well, pretty much everything she had was white."

That sounded almost identical to the woman who had come to view the apartment on her friend's behalf who had then sent Ruby to view the apartment. There was no doubt in Ren's mind, Jaune's Ruby and Apartment Ruby were one in the same. He could tell Jaune, but Nora's logic was surprisingly sound. '_Sorry Jaune, tough love._' With his curiosity sated, Ren turned his attention to his other hunger.

"I see. Did you eat?"

"No, just came straight home."

"Same, let's just order some food."

* * *

"_Let's _see... Hey Ruby, do you want to go out some time? Nice and simple, it's to the point. But what if it makes me seem like a creep? Maybe I should try something else. Hey Ruby, I think you're interesting, want to go out some time? No, that's an awful compliment. Hey Ruby, I think you're beautiful, want to go out some time? What if she thinks I only like her for her body? She'd never go out with me then. Why is this so hard?" Jaune had been at it for a half hour, pacing around his room, trying to figure out the best way to ask out Ruby the next time he saw her. Try as he might Jaune couldn't figure out how to ask her out. It didn't help that Jaune hadn't asked anyone out in five years.

The last time Jaune asked anyone out was when he was fifteen. He asked out the school idol, repeatedly, each time being met with crushing rejection from which he would inevitably bounce back from, and ask her again. But five years ago when he was talking to his good friend Pyrrha about how he'd been rejected again she finally snapped and asked him out herself, deciding the blonde would never do it himself. He had been shock, but accepted. He had always had a crush on Pyrrha, but hadn't been able to see that she liked him. They had met a year before when a computer error placed Jaune in advanced math with no options of dropping the course. Pyrrha had helped tutor him, and despite being miserable at math he had come out with a grade far higher than he expected. Once she had started tutoring him they became friends, and grew to like each other even more. They had dated for nearly five years and in that time Jaune hadn't asked anyone out.

The more he thought about it, the bigger the task became, and the more it worried him. The more it worried him the more he thought about it. Jaune had fallen into a cycle of working himself up. He knew he shouldn't, but it seemed so insurmountable. In his mind the greatest achievements of every one before him seemed like nothing to the task set out in front of him. Usually he would just turn to Ren for advice, but as far as Jaune knew Ren hadn't ever asked anyone out, Nora had initiated their relationship just after Jaune and Pyrrha started theirs, deciding she wanted to date too. Everyone had wondered whether or not Ren had agreed, but no one had asked as they were all too afraid of angering Nora. He could ask Nora, she was a girl and knew about girl things, but he doubted Nora and Ruby really liked the same things. In the end Jaune decided he would just need to face the task himself. But he could think about that tomorrow, tonight, he would sleep.

* * *

_An_ excited squeal woke Jaune up. He could hear Nora talking to someone, but couldn't hear the other person.

"It'll be so nice having another girl around. When can you move in? That works great. This is so exciting!" Nora seemed to quiet down, so Jaune let himself drift back to sleep, he didn't have to get up yet, and was adamant he shouldn't. Unfortunately for him, Nora didn't agree.

"She said she'd take it! Ooh Ren, this is so exciting."

Jaune wasn't sure what she was so excited about, it was just a new roommate. Nora hadn't really said much about the girl who had viewed the apartment the day before, but from her squealing the excitable redhead seemed to think she was perfect or something. He thought he heard Ren, but his stoic friend was too quiet to make out. Nora quieted down again and Jaune drifted back off to sleep.

* * *

_When_ he finally woke up, he was told that since both Ren and Nora had to work that day, it would be up to Jaune to take down the fliers they had put up just three days prior. He ate a quick breakfast and decided to get right down to work. The longer they were up, the more likely it would be that someone would call looking for the room.

It took the better part of an hour to track down and get rid of all the fliers, but finally he managed it.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing? You can't just take fliers like that, other people are looking for places!"

Jaune turned and saw a very angry man staring him down.

"I'm not looking for-"

"Then why the hell are you taking that?"

"You see I live here."

"What? Don't want anyone to get in then? You think you're king shit or something?"

"Wha- It's not like that!" Try as he might, he couldn't calm the man, everything Jaune said seemed to anger him further.

"Is there a problem here?" Both of them turned to see a woman with long, curly blonde hair, Jaune had the distinct feeling he remembered her from somewhere.

"Yeah, this guy's stealing adds." The man jabbed his finger into Jaune's chest, forcing him back a little.

"I'm not stealing anything, I'm taking it down because the room's already taken. I live there, we offered it to someone this morning."

"Let me see that." She motioned to the paper. Jaune handed it over. "Hmm... Yep, it's taken, I know the person moving in."

The man grumbled and stomped off.

"So you're gonna be her new roommate huh? Guess life's pretty weird. Well, see you around."

At that the woman left, throwing up a halfhearted wave.

Jaune called after her, but she ignored him. He knew that he had met her before, but couldn't for the life of him place where. He decided it would be best head home and tell his friends about this when they finished work.

* * *

"_And_ there were like a hundred of them, I've never seen so many puppies in my life, it was the best day ever!" Nora excitedly rambled about her day between mouthfuls of food,

"Nora, you work at a pet shop, you should expect to see a lot of animals. Anyways, what's on your mind Jaune?" Ren, despite being the quietest of the three led dinner time conversation. The job had originally belonged to Pyrrha, but with her gone it fell to Ren, the most responsible, to handle. It was no small feat, Nora had a habit of talking too much and never letting anyone else get in a word, and Jaune often got so distracted he would forget to talk.

"Something really weird happened today."

"Was it aliens? I bet it was aliens."

"It wasn't aliens Nora. I was taking down the fliers when a guy started yelling at me, then some lady stepped in and said she knew the person moving in and told me life's weird. And I swear I know her from somewhere!"

"That does sound a little odd. I'm sure you can ask our new roommate tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? It's the twentieth!"

"She won't be paying for the full first month, but was quite eager to move in right away."

"Oh. Alright." The conversation soon reached a natural end, and the meal ended in silence.

* * *

_He_ slept horribly that night. He had always been someone to fixate on something or another, and his strange encounter with the blonde woman was certainly worth fixating on. Jaune was sure he knew her from somewhere. Eventually sleep over took him and he drifted into a restless sleep full of the woman and Ruby.

When he woke up, Jaune realized exactly who the woman was. But it didn't make any sense, he rushed out of his room to talk to Ren.

"I figured it out! I know where I saw that woman, I saw her the second time I ran into... Ruby?"

That couldn't be. Ruby couldn't be sitting in his kitchen, with his friends, drinking coffee. That made no sense. And even worse Jaune hadn't bothered putting pants on.

"Jaune?"

* * *

**Took a bit longer to write this one, but here it is. Thanks again to everyone who has read this far, and a big thanks to everyone who reviews. Next chapter will be done in a day or two, so see you all soon. Theeubernoob, signing off.**


	4. Chapter 4

An awkward silence reigned over the kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" The blonde attempted to break the silence. He wasn't sure how to react

"I'm moving into the room." Ruby was in a bad position. She was not very tall, already sitting, and Jaune hadn't put on pants. She was at the perfect level for a very awkward view.

"Oh, I see." He a mental note to kill Ren.

"Jaune, you're making a bad impression on our new roommate, go put on pants." Ren calmly said as he sipped his coffee. Jaune immediately rushed back to his room.

"So does that happen a lot?" Ruby quietly asked.

"Only sometimes. He usually remembers his pants." Nora calmly answered.

"Alright." Ruby was in a similar boat to Jaune, unsure how exactly to react to this situation. A few minutes passed. Nora began to impatiently drum on the table.

"I don't think he'll be coming back any time soon." Ren felt sorry for Jaune, he really did, but he put the blame solely on the blonde. It had after all been Jaune who had forgotten his pants.

"So you two know each other?"

"We've met a few times, I kept accidentally knocking him over. He seems nice."

* * *

_In_ all the possible roommate situations Jaune hadn't even vaguely considered this one. It was impossible. He was still dreaming. He would back to bed, and wake up and there would be some strange woman he'd never met before sitting and having coffee with his roommates, not Ruby. It had to be a dream, Jaune always had bad dreams about forgetting his pants. It was all just a horrible, horrible dream, he hadn't made a fool of himself, he was just sleeping. If he pinched himself he wouldn't feel a- "Son of a bitch! Why'd I have to pinch myself so hard!"

At that moment Jaune considered his options. It was only the second floor, so a window escape was viable. He had enough to afford a bus ticket out of town. He could move to any number of places and start a new life. Hell, he could even become a lumberjack, they would never expect that he'd be a lumberjack, and he could grow that beard Pyrrha always told him he couldn't. Being a lumberjack sounded great at that moment. His plan was perfect, nothing could stop him now.

A knock interrupted his train of thought. "Jaune? Are you going to stay in there all day?" He heard Ren ask.

"I don't know, maybe."

"I'm coming in, you better have pants on." Ren entered and closed the door behind him

"You knew didn't you?"

"I didn't know for sure. I suspected though."

"Why didn't you tell me? She saw me without pants."

"The pants were your own fault. And I didn't tell you in case I was wrong. You seem to like her, I didn't want to get your hopes up." Ren didn't mention the other half of his motivation.

"Oh, thanks. So did she say anything about me?"

"She said you seem nice."

"Well, that's a start."

"Come on, I'm sure Nora's eaten your breakfast by now."

* * *

"_Don't_ be like that, I left you some of it."

"It's one sausage, literally one sausage."

"Hey if you don't want it." Her hand crept closer to his plate.

"Not a chance! I'll need it for the energy to make my breakfast."

"Awe, I wanted it."

Ruby gave Ren a look. "Is it always like this around here?"

"Not really, just a meals. Bit of advice, keep a good eye on your food. I don't know where it all goes, but Nora eats more than should even be possible."

Ruby nodded thoughtfully. "So how long have you known each other?"

"I've known Nora since we were three, and Jaune since high school."

"Oh, so a while then." She lapsed into quiet thought watching the scene unfolding in front of her. Jaune was trying desperately to cook his breakfast, only for everything that left the frying pan to disappear into Nora's mouth. He eventually got fed up, and ended up in a tug of war over a sausage, which the much stronger Nora was easily winning. She pulled it from his hands and triumphantly devoured it. Jaune, who had landed on his ass, stood up, poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat staring at Nora as he ate his meagre breakfast.

* * *

_They_ didn't see much of Ruby the following days, she seemed to spend a lot of time in her room, despite being told that she was more than welcome in the living room. Jaune took it as a sign, it clearly meant that she didn't like him. Maybe she hated him. He had always looked a little stupid while eating, or maybe eating dry cereal had disgusted her so much she didn't want anything to do with him. Pyrrha had found it weird when he ate dry cereal, maybe Ruby found it even worse. He couldn't help it though. He had had the bowl of cereal and the milk right in front of him, turned slightly, every so slightly, to grab the milk, and turned back to the bowl to find it gone too many times to take chances with Nora. He'd tried pouring the milk first, but it never worked the same. Maybe he should have tried harder to make it work. Ruby hated him now and it was all cereal's fault.

"Jaune? Is everything alright? You've been giving your breakfast the evil eye for at least a minute."

"It's just Ruby, do you think she doesn't like us?"

Ren sighed. "You worry too much. How long have you known Nora and I?"

"Six years."

"Right, and how long has Ruby known the three of us?"

"About five days."

"Right. We're intimidating. It's hard to just join in a group of friends who've known each other a while. All we can do is try and make her feel welcome."

"Alright, I think I have an idea." He left the table, leaving his soggy cereal behind.

* * *

_He_ approached her door. He could do this. That room hadn't been mouldy in months, and doing this was the first step towards asking out Ruby. He steeled his will and knocked on the door.

"Just a second." He heard Ruby making her way to the door. She opened the door to find a stunned Jaune. Ruby was still wearing her pyjamas. Her hair was messier than usual, and her clothes were modest, but Jaune was stunned by how cute she looked. After a moment he finally managed to compose himself enough to talk.

"One of the channels is showing cheesy sixties superhero shows all day if you want to join us, it'll be fun." As he waited for her response Jaune silently prayed to every god he knew.

"Sure, I'll be out in a couple minutes."

"Alright, see you then."

Ruby closed the door. Jaune's cool face dropped, he looked like a child who had been told they could have two desserts. He practically skipped with joy to the living room where he found his friends.

"I need the remote. We're gonna watch the marathon."

Ren nodded and tossed him the remote. Jaune quickly set the channel and was sitting down just as Ruby entered. She had put on a sweater and brushed the bed head out of her hair. She sat down in the chair nearest Jaune as the first episode started.

* * *

_Jaune _found it hard to focus on the TV. His attention kept drifting towards the dark haired girl sitting near him. Everything about her was adorable. Her adorable floral pyjama pants, her adorable sweater, her adorable laugh, the adorable way she sat with her knees tucked into her chest, and most importantly her adorable laugh. Ruby's laugh was the sweetest, most innocent he had ever heard, possibly the most infectious too. He never found himself laughing at or with the shows, only with Ruby.

"I'm hungry."

Jaune checked his watch, it was nearly lunch time.

"I'll go make some lunch." Jaune stood up and headed for the kitchen, a hungry Nora was trouble.

"Cooking for seven is a bit much, Ruby could you help him?"

"But there's only four of us."

"I wasn't joking about how much she can eat, Nora can eat enough for four."

"I should go help then." She got up and joined Jaune in the kitchen. "Hey Jaune, Ren said I should help you out."

"I'm just doing sandwiches, but sure, I didn't know what kind you'd want anyways." Jaune moved around the kitchen grabbing everything he needed.

"You know what Ren and Nora want?"

"Same as always, Ren wants salami, and Nora wants a peanut butter and banana, a pastrami, turkey club, a grilled cheese and an ice cream sandwich."

Ruby furrowed her brow, which Jaune thought was absolutely adorable. "So she actually eats all that?"

"Yep."

"Every time?"

"Every time."

"Wow. I thought I ate a lot."

"I haven't seen you eating that much."

"Well it's just with sweets."

"Doesn't everyone eat a lot of those?"

"Not quite like this... I can eat an entire batch of cookies."

"Like a dozen?"

"No, three dozen."

"Oh." Jaune lapsed into a pensive silence. She liked sweets. That information would certainly help him. He could take her somewhere with sweets. That would definitely work for a first date. Dates... She was right in front of him. There was no time like the present. "Hey Ruby, do you want to go out tonight? For dinner I mean."

"Sure, sounds like fun, we can all get food together."

Jaune considered his next action carefully. All. Two people didn't mean all. She was clearly referring to the whole household. This meant drastic measures. He would need two things, Ren, and the night out protocol. He just needed an excuse to go talk to Ren. Luckily the fridge had one for him.

"Looks like we're out of salami, Ren changes his back up all the time, so I'd better go ask him what he wants." Jaune left the kitchen

Ruby nodded and continued making lunch.

"Ren two things, we're out of salami and we need the night out protocol."

"Tuna I guess then, and already? You might be moving a little too fast here Jaune."

"Not for me. I need you to invoke it."

"Uh, alright. I assume you have a plan?"

"Yeah, anyways gotta go make sandwiches. You'll know when to use it." He returned to the kitchen.

* * *

_Interest_ in the marathon was waning as dinner time approached. Jaune knew it was time. "So Ruby and I were talking in the kitchen, we should all go out for dinner."

Ren shook his head. "You two go, I was just about to call night out anyways."

"Night out?" Ruby looked confused.

"I'll explain it in a second, it's best we leave. "

Ruby looked confused, but ultimately agreed. "Alright."

* * *

"_So_ what is night out?" Ruby asked.

"It's an agreement Ren and Nora, and Me and my ex came to after our old roommate brought someone home. We found out the walls weren't too thick and all agreed to never have sex with the other couple home. So we agreed to night out. Either couple could call it, they got the place to themselves for the night, but had to pay for a night out."

"So they're..."

"It's really best not to think about it."

"So you're last roommate was your ex?"

"Yeah, she moved out two months ago when we broke up."

"Oh, what was her name?"

"Her name was... Pyrrha?" Jaune stared at the person who had just stepped out of the shop in front of him.

"Jaune?"

* * *

**Well that's a cliff hanger. So I said four chapters. Make that five. Also sorry for the delay, I got busier than I expected the past few days and haven't had as much time to write as I'd have liked. On the plus side my desktop is set up, so I have access to the files, but I'm going to finish up this before I get back to Two Much Red, and How to Avoid Bad Dates. So hold out a bit longer. Thanks for reading, and an extra big thanks if you reviewed or if you plan to review, I always love hearing what people think. See you all soon.**


	5. Chapter 5

It was late by the time Jaune arrived home. His evening had gone terribly. The day had been going fine, he was going out to dinner with Ruby, even if it was just as roommates, then they had to go running into Pyrrha. Everything got really awkward after that. Ruby had to hear the awkward "How are things" conversation between her new roommate and his ex, and Jaune had to have that conversation. Things didn't improve once Jaune managed to excuse himself from Pyrrha, Ruby didn't say much and Jaune said even less. After dinner Ruby had excused herself, saying that she needed to do some errands while they were out and that she would see him back at home. Jaune couldn't think of a good excuse to accompany her not that it would have mattered, she left before he could. He had aimlessly wandered for a while before heading back.

When he entered he saw Ren sitting on the couch.

"Hey Jaune. Where's Ruby?"

The blonde simply shrugged and flopped down onto the couch beside his friend,

"Strike out?"

He shrugged.

"Conversation is a two person job, talk to me."

"We sort of ran into Pyrrha, then everything was awkward, and Ruby left and then it was now."

"That's worse than I expected."

"Yeah..." They lapsed into an awkward silence.

"So how were things with Pyrrha?" Ren tried to break the silence

Jaune sunk. "Bad, really bad. She was talking about how she still wants to be friends, and trying to tell me it wasn't my fault, and she was being really nice about it, but Ruby was right there so it was at least twice as awkward. I mean is there any worse time to get the awkward ex first contact than while you're trying to have a sort of date?"

"Probably having a proper date. And that doesn't sound like things with Pyrrha are bad, just poorly timed."

They heard the door open and saw Ruby enter, talking with the white haired girl they'd met before.

"Hey Ruby." Ren casually greeted her. Jaune managed an awkward wave.

"Hey Ren, hey Jaune. This is Weiss."

"I've met both of them before Ruby."

"Oh, alright then." She gave a quick wave to the pair on the couch before heading off to her room with Weiss in tow.

"I'm gonna go to bed, night Ren."

"Night Jaune."

* * *

_Jaune_ didn't sleep that night. He could hear Ruby and Weiss talking until late, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Eventually he heard Weiss leave, the talking stopped then, but he still didn't sleep. Things had been going well all day, he'd hung out with Ruby, got Ren laid, and was off to dinner with his adorable roommate, but then he had shut down when Pyrrha entered the picture. Ruby probably thought he was still stuck on Pyrrha. He hadn't done anything to tell her otherwise. Maybe he could do it now. He could stand up, go to Ruby, knock on her door and tell her he was over his ex.

He doubted that. He couldn't could he? Off the cuff it was already about two in the morning, Ruby would no doubt be asleep. And then there was how awkward and weird of a conversation that would be. What if she wasn't interested in him anyways? What would she think of him then if he woke her up in the small hours of the morning to say something he wasn't sure he believed. He liked Ruby, he had since day one, but it was all too sudden. He'd been moping about Pyrrha one moment then had been head over heels for the girl who'd knocked him ass over teakettle the next. What if he was doing it all for the wrong reasons? What if he hurt Ruby? What if he drove her away? Could he live with himself then?

He wasn't sure on any of those questions, but he was sure he wouldn't find the answers sitting in his dark bedroom. He couldn't sleep anyways, he decided a walk would help clear his mind. After pulling on a sweater and a pair of jeans he grabbed his keys and headed for the door. He left, hardly making a sound, and not noticing his petite roommate.

* * *

_Ruby_ was just beginning to fall asleep as she heard Jaune stomping around. It would take her a while to get comfortable enough, she may as well get up and get a glass of water or something. She quietly stepped out of her room in time to see Jaune disappear out the door. She had to wonder where he was going this late. It was nearly two thirty after all. She was in her pyjamas, so chasing him to ask was out, not to mention their awkward meal earlier today, they hadn't exactly spoken since. Maybe she ought to just leave him be. Well she knew that she ought to, but she wasn't sure that she would. Ruby Rose had many talents, knowing when to leave well enough well enough alone wasn't one of them. She could text him and ask. That would work. But how to word it?

'_Hey Jaune, where are you going?_' No, that wouldn't work, came off all weird. That was too direct. Subtlety was the way to go. Lure him into a conversation and he'll explain.

'_Hey_' She sent the message only to hear a faint ring from inside Jaune's room. Clearly that plan wouldn't work.

That left a problem. If Jaune wasn't at his phone to receive that message and just read it later then things would get weirder and Ruby didn't want that, she wanted things to be less weird. There was only one thing she could do, destroy the evidence.

Ruby cautiously opened the door to Jaune's room. It was empty. She stepped in and turned on the light. It was the first time she had been in Jaune's room, what struck her must was how sparsely decorated it was. A bed, a desk, a dresser and a surprising amount of empty picture frames. More than half them were empty and gathering dust. The remaining pictures showed him with his family, and friends, but none of them showed Pyrrha. Ruby supposed that the empty pictures had held those pictures.

But she wasn't here to look at pictures, she was here to clean up evidence. His phone sat on the desk. She hesitantly picked it up and turned on the screen. Surprisingly he didn't have a password. She opened his inbox and saw her message. She stopped in shock. She wasn't Ruby in his phone or Ruby (Roommate) or anything like that, she was Ruby with a little heart emoticon. But what could that mean? Did Jaune...

Something stirring in Ren and Nora's room snapped her out of her thoughts. She quickly deleted the message and quietly returned to her room. She could think about it there.

* * *

_It_ was about a half hour into his walk that Jaune realized he didn't have his phone, or his wallet for that matter. He was considering heading back when he heard someone call out to him.

"Hey!"

He turned and saw Ruby's sister walking towards him.

"Oh, hey."

"What brings you out here so late?" She asked.

"I couldn't sleep. How about you, why are you out so late?"

"Just got off work, I work a pretty late shift. Anyways it's pretty chilly out here, let's grab a coffee."

Jaune hesitated a little.

"Don't worry, I don't bite."

"It's not that, I kind of forgot my wallet."

"It's fine, I can cover coffee."

* * *

"_So_ whatever's got you up must be pretty big." She took a sip of the still scalding coffee.

"I guess it is." He stared at his coffee

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't really know what to say."

She frowned. "You're just like my sister. She never wants to talk about problems. It's always 'nothing Yang,' when ever something's clearly bothering her. Oh, I don't think we've actually been properly introduced, I'm Yang." She held out her hand.

"I'm Jaune." He shook her hand.

"Good, so anyways just start at the beginning, that's usually the easiest way."

Jaune wasn't sure why he was considering, but he was. Something about Yang made it seem easy to talk to, and maybe she could help him. "Alright, here goes nothing."

* * *

"_So_ let's just recap this, you like my sister, but you think that she thinks you're hung up on your ex. Sounds like that's mostly in your head." Yang finished her third cup of still piping hot coffee.

"What do you mean?" Maybe Yang knew something he didn't they were sisters after all.

"Ruby is pretty awkward some times, you weren't talking, so she wasn't talking. She does a pretty good job of hiding it some times, but if she gets out of her depth, it's really obvious."

"So what should I do?"

"Talk to her."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Anyways it's been fun, but I've got to go, see you around." She waved as she left, Jaune returned the wave before leaving himself. He spent the rest of the night thinking what to say to Ruby.

* * *

_Jaune_ waited intently for Ruby to wake up, she made a lot of noise when she first woke up, once he heard the racket he'd go and knock on her door. The loud thump of Ruby falling out of bed drew his attention, it was now or never.

He left his room and approached hers. He hesitated a moment before knocking. A sleepy "Just a minute." Was the reply. Ruby pulled the door open a moment later, looking a little confused. "Jaune?"

"Hey Ruby, can we talk?"

"Sure, come in." She stepped back into her room, the blonde followed her, closing the door behind him.

"I haven't done this in five years, and even back then I wasn't really that good at it, but here it goes." He drew in a breath. "I like you, not like a friend like but like like, the kind of like where you want to hold hands and go on dates and stuff. And I don't know if you like me too but I had to tell you."

The petite girl stared, not sure of what to say.

"I'll just show myself out." He moved towards the door.

"Wait."

He stopped.

"I'm not really good with words, and I've never been good at talking about my feelings, but when we first met you seemed neat, and then I moved in and found out you were nice, and neat, and then I saw your ex and didn't think I could compare, she's all womanly and stuff, and I'm not, and I didn't know and I was confused and..." She paused, taking a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is I like you too."

An awkward silence followed.

"So what now?" Jaune finally asked.

"Breakfast I guess."

"Alright."

"So are we a couple?"

"I think so."

"Good."

* * *

**Gonna clear the air a bit, chapter five isn't the end per say, rather the end of my unadulterared focus. I'm not marking the story as complete, but I'm not going to be regularly updating. That said, I'd like to thank everyone who has followed Brief Encounters this past little while, I won't forget about you guys, but when it comes down to it I'm too single minded to write three stories at once, two is hard enough. So thanks for reading, extra thanks for reviewing, and I'll see you all around, I won't claim to be soon this time though.**


	6. Chapter 6

**So here we are again, and this time at the beginning of the chapter. I tend to have my notes at the end but this chapter kind of calls for an explanation. Some of Brief Encounters probably seemed quite rushed. Well this'll hopefully help with that. This chapter, and any following for the next little bit will be Ruby's perspective on the events of chapters 1-5. So now you can find out the other half of the story so far. Hope you like it**.

* * *

"_Did_ you even get up today?" Weiss fumed.

Ruby gave her a hesitant smile. "Maybe?"

"You've been sleeping on my couch for three weeks now."

"Has it been that long already?"

"Yes, two weeks longer than you said it would."

"It's a... I'm trying to think of it... Seller's market that's it! It's a sellers market, very expensive apartments, much more than I can afford."

The Platinum-haired woman shot her an unimpressed look. "When was the last time you looked at an apartment?"

"Tuesday... the sixth..."

"A week and a half? Ruby you can't sleep on my couch for ever!"

"It is a really nice couch. Besides its just like the sleep overs we used to have where we'd stay up all night and-"

"I'm going to be blunt. I have classes, I have homework, I have plenty enough to do without you sleeping on my couch all day. It's five o'clock and you're not even dressed!"

"It's five? I told Yang I'd meet her at five!" Ruby sprung up and rummaged through her bag. She then rushed off to the bathroom, and then out the door, yelling a quick goodbye.

Weiss sighed. This wouldn't work, it was starting to look like she had to go apartment hunting.

* * *

"_I'm _late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" Ruby yelled as she ran, weaving through people. She rounded a corner and collided into something. Even weirder she landed on something. She looked down and nearly gasped, not something, someone, a man not much older than herself. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" She got off him before helping him up. "Are you okay?" He stared in response causing Ruby to panic a little, maybe he'd hit his head. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked again. Silence. Maybe she just needed to get his attention. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him as hard as she could.

"Huh, what? Oh, I'm fine." He stammered out.

The dark-haired girl let out the breath she'd been holding. That was good she was already late... She stopped. She was late. "I'm late! I'msosorrygottagobye!" She yelled, hoping he understood. She darted off again, it wasn't far now.

* * *

"_And_ he just stared at me. I thought he'd hit his head or something." Ruby spoke between bites of food.

"Maybe he thought you were cute. Was he hot?" Yang said as she stabbed a fry into her milkshake.

"First, that's still weird, second what makes you think that, and third, maybe?"

"Who's paying for your food?" The blonde gave her sister a stern look. Ruby laughed nervously in response. "And I think that because you are pretty adorable. Also what do you mean maybe?"

"Well he was tall and kinda scruffy looking. I mean he wasn't bad looking..." Ruby trailed off staring at the line.

"What?" Yang looked over, Ruby was staring at the blonde who had just entered.

"That's the guy I knocked over."

"Really? Well I think it's time we were introduced"

Ruby froze in terror.

"Hey! Hey you!" Yang called out, waving at him.

Ruby quickly pulled up her hood as people turned to look at them. "Please stop it Yang. Yang? Please? Is he coming over her, please tell me he isn't. Yaaang." The blonde ignored her pleas.

"I believe you two may know each other." Yang said as she pulled off her sister's hood. He looked a little confused, she looked unhappy. "What, I'm just trying to help."

Ruby turned to face him "Sorry about my sister." She stammered out.

"It's alright, I'm going to get food now so... bye." He turned and hurried into the line.

Ruby turned and gave her sister a death glare.

"I see what you mean. He's not bad looking, maybe a six, six and a half. I mean you're a solid eight."

Ruby silently stood up then pulled her sister up.

"It wasn't that bad. How else are you going to make new friends?" Her sister asked as Ruby dragged her out.

* * *

"_Remember_ that job interview I set up for you?" Weiss asked as Ruby groggily ate cereal.

"Yes?"

"It's in a half hour, you'd better not be late."

Ruby jumped up, nearly screaming. "Ah! I'm late!"

Weiss sighed, some things never changed. If there was one constant in her life it was Ruby being late. It surprised her that someone so smart she graduated two years early could be so awful at the simple task of keeping track of time. She had been late when they first met and late ever since. They met in high school when Weiss was in tenth grade. Weiss was calmly returning from an errand for her teacher when she heard someone yelling and getting closer. Before she knew it she had been knocked over and a strange girl was helping her up and apologizing profusely. It had been far from an ideal first meeting. Their relationship slowly improved after they ended up in the same class.

"Thanks for the help Weiss, gotta go, wish me luck!" Ruby yelled as she darted out the door.

If she had to give Ruby something, it would be how quick she was on the recovery.

_It _wasn't too far to the interview but Ruby had left herself hardly any time. She ran dodging people and signs as she went until she rounded a corner and once again found herself on top of someone. She quickly got off of him. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" Wait a minute, she recognized him. He was the blonde she had knocked over yesterday. She already hadn't made a nice impression on him, she would have to change that starting now. But she had to keep Yang's advice in mind, always play it cool. " Are you okay? Hey, wait, aren't you the guy I knocked over yesterday?" She frowned internally. '_Real cool Ruby, real cool_'

"I'm fine, and yes, the name's Jaune." He held out his hand.

"I'm sorry for knocking you over again, I'm Ruby." She shook his hand. "Nice to meet you." She had to admit, he seemed awfully cool about their meetings so far despite how weird they had been. If she hadn't been in such a rush- "Oh crap, I'm late! It was nice meeting you, and sorry for knocking you over again!" She took off again, she couldn't be late, Weiss would kill her.

* * *

"_Well_?" Weiss asked as Ruby stepped in the door.

"I was early. And I knocked over that guy again, turns out his name is Jaune." She proudly stated. Weiss shot her a look of disapproval. "And they said they'd call me tomorrow."

"Good. Considering the recommendation and your degree so far they'll likely hire you. Now that you've got a job it's time to find you permanent residence. Besides my couch. Don't give me that look, I've been patient enough already. I've already started looking at apartments."

"But you're my best friend! Aren't you supposed to support me?"

"I've supported you for three weeks. This apartment wasn't built for two people."

"Weiss, look at me, I'm tiny! I take up no space at all."

"I need my space Ruby. I'm finding you a place and that is final. If you try and fight it I'll call your sister."

"Alright." Ruby sank into Weiss' couch.

"I'm going out for a bit, I won't be back until later. There's food in the fridge."

Ruby sighed. She had had it all planned out. Things weren't working out for her at university. Quite frankly the school sucked. It had seemed so nice on paper and looked so pretty but when she got there she was less than impressed. After nearly two years of just putting up with it she decided enough was enough. Weiss was always going on about how nice it was at her school and it had a program like the one she was in. She would change schools.

She spent the rest of the year working out the change. To say Ruby was excited was an understatement, she would be living in the same city as her best friend again. Her sister lived there too, but that wasn't quite as important. It would be perfect, she could live with Weiss and it would be like a non-stop sleep over. Sadly Weiss didn't see things the same way.

Weiss was from quite the notable family, despite this her parents gave her no money for school. Her father had earned his fortune, he expected her to do the same. She had worked hard and received a full scholarship. The platinum-haired woman was well aware what kind of distraction Ruby would be to her work and expected her moved out before the fall semester started.

Living with Yang was entirely out of the question. Yang had found work straight out of high school and had taken quite well to living on her own. Ruby moving in would likely drive them both insane. Ruby was stuck getting an apartment somewhere. Well if Weiss was handling it she could at least be sure it would be a nice apartment. With nothing left to do Ruby decided to read.

* * *

_Weiss'_ words echoed in Ruby's mind as she walked.

"_I've found somewhere that looks nice. You'll have roommates but the two I met seemed... nice..."_

So she found herself walking to go and see an apartment. It wasn't too far from where she was staying so she would be able to visit easy enough. The sight of someone familiar walking towards her pulled her from her thoughts. Jaune was headed her way.

"Hey Ruby." He greeted her warmly.

"Hey Jaune." She smiled.

"Not in a rush today?"

"Nope, I made sure I had plenty of time today, anyways I've gotta go, I'm supposed to look at an apartment."

"Alright, see you later."

"See you later."

The continued down their respective paths. Ruby smiled to herself, Jaune seemed so nice.

She soon reached the building and knocked on the door.

A redheaded woman opened the door.

"Hi, I'm here about the apart-" Ruby was cut off after being seized in a bearhug.

"Ohmygodyou'resocute!" The redhead squealed.

"Thanks?" Ruby managed, more than a little startled by the situation.  
"Oh, sorry." She dropped the petite woman and held out her hand. "I'm Nora."

"I'm Ruby." Ruby shook her hand.

Nora paused as if thinking of something. "Hmm..."

"Is something wrong?"

She stopped and turned to stare at the smaller girl. "Nope nothing. Anyways let's give you the tour!"

* * *

"_So_ it's three hundred a month plus utensils." Nora stated, reading something off the palm of her hand.

"Utensils?"

"Oh, Utilities. Sorry."

"Alright, well I'd better think it over, I'll call soon."

"Alrighty."

* * *

"_It _seems like a nice place, I think I'll call them and tell them I'll take it."

"Good. I think a celebration is in order then. You have a job, you have an apartment and you've been accepted into the school. We haven't celebrated any of those."

"You're right. What should we do?"

"A nice dinner I think."

"Ooh that sounds good, let's go!"

Weiss smiled to herself, things would be a little quieter when Ruby left, but she was sure she could manage.

They were nearing the restaurant when Jaune stepped out of a store in front of them, calling back and waving to someone inside.

"I'll see you Wednesday, Mr. Port."

He turned and suddenly jumped.

"Ruby?"

"Hey Jaune." She greeted him calmly.

"Hey..."

"This is my friend Weiss. Weiss, Jaune, Jaune Weiss." Ruby pointed back and forth between them.

"Um, hi." He awkwardly greeted her.

"Hello. Ruby and I need to be going, Goodbye."

"Bye Jaune."

"Bye Ruby."

They left and continued towards their destination.

"See, I told you he seems nice."

Weiss sighed quietly. Ruby was a nice girl, but more than a little dense. She considered telling her friend Jaune was interested in her but decided against it. Ruby would figure it out in time.


End file.
